Role switching of robots with similar appearance

ABSTRACT

A role switching method of robots with similar appearance includes: at a robot, the robot being capable of communicating with other robots within a predetermined range: identifying other robots having the same appearance as the robot itself within the predetermined range; and performing role exchange with the other robots having the same appearance as the robot itself within the predetermined range.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of International Application No.PCT/CN2017/1092821 with an international filing date of Jul. 13, 2017,the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

Embodiments of the present application relate to the technical field ofartificial intelligence, and in particular, relate to a role switchingof robots with similar appearance.

BACKGROUND

With the development of artificial intelligence, robots bring moreconvenience to people's production and life. At present, robots are moreand more widely used, and take an important role in household andcommercial fields. For convenience of process and manufacture, andreduction of design cost, robots of the same model or in severalgenerations may have the same appearance.

In studies of the related art, the inventors have identified that therelated art has at least the following problem: The robots having thesame appearance are responsible for the same or similar tasks inproduction lines or assembly lines. However, in families or otherapplication scenarios, the robots each have their individual roles, andare generally responsible for different tasks, for example, receivingguests or visitors, shows, and cleanings. In some application scenarios,it is expected that role exchange may be performed between the robots.For example, a robot for receiving guests or visitors needs to exchangerole with a robot for shows. If role exchange is performed between therobots having the same appearance, requirements in some applicationscenarios may be accommodated, and thus user experience is betterimproved.

SUMMARY

An embodiment of the present application provides a robot role switchingmethod. The method includes: at a robot, the robot being capable ofcommunicating with other robots within a predetermined range:identifying other robots having the same appearance as the robot itselfwithin the predetermined range; and performing role exchange with theother robots having the same appearance as the robot itself within thepredetermined range.

Another embodiment of the present application provides a robot. Therobot includes: at least one processor; and a memory communicablyconnected to the at least one processor; wherein the memory storesinstructions executable by the at least one processor, wherein, theinstructions, when being executed by the at least one processor, causethe at least one processor to perform the steps of: identifying otherrobots having the same appearance as the robot itself within thepredetermined range; and performing role exchange with the other robotshaving the same appearance as the robot itself within the predeterminedrange.

Still another embodiment of the present application provides anon-volatile computer-readable storage medium. The computer-readablestorage medium stores computer-executable instructions, which, whenbeing executed by a robot, cause the robot to perform the steps of:identifying other robots having the same appearance as the robot itselfwithin the predetermined range; and performing role exchange with theother robots having the same appearance as the robot itself within thepredetermined range.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

One or more embodiments are illustrated by way of example, and not bylimitation, in the figures of the accompanying drawings, whereincomponents having the same reference numeral designations represent likecomponents throughout. The drawings are not to scale, unless otherwisedisclosed.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an application scenario of a roleswitching method and apparatus according to the present application;

FIG. 2 is a schematic flowchart of a role switching method according toan embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 3 is a schematic flowchart of a role switching method according toan embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 4 is a schematic flowchart of role exchange with other robotshaving the same appearance as the robot itself within a predeterminedrange in the role switching method according to an embodiment of thepresent application;

FIG. 5 is a schematic flowchart of role exchange with other robotshaving the same appearance as the robot itself within a predeterminedrange in the role switching method according to an embodiment of thepresent application;

FIG. 6 is a schematic flowchart of role exchange with other robotshaving the same appearance as the robot itself within a predeterminedrange in the role switching method according to an embodiment of thepresent application;

FIG. 7 is a schematic flowchart of role exchange with other robotshaving the same appearance as the robot itself within a predeterminedrange in the role switching method according to an embodiment of thepresent application;

FIG. 8 is a schematic structural diagram of a role switching apparatusaccording to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 9 is a schematic structural diagram of a role switching apparatusaccording to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 10 is a schematic structural diagram of a role exchanging moduleaccording to an embodiment of the present application; and

FIG. 11 is a schematic hardware structural diagram of a robot in therole switching method according to an embodiment of the presentapplication.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

For clearer descriptions of the objectives, technical solutions andadvantages of the embodiments of the present application clearer, thetechnical solutions according to the embodiments of the presentapplication are clearly and thoroughly described with reference to theaccompanying drawings of the embodiments of the present application. Thedescribed embodiments are merely exemplary ones, but are not all theembodiments of the present application. Based on the embodiments of thepresent application, all other embodiments derived by persons ofordinary skill in the art without any creative efforts shall fall withinthe protection scope of the present application.

A robot role switching method and apparatus according to the embodimentsof the present application are applicable to an application scenario asillustrated in FIG. 1. The application scenario involves a user 10 and aplurality of robots 20. The plurality of robots 20 may communicate witheach other within a predetermined range. The predetermined range may bethe same network, for example, a local area network deployed at a homeor in a company, or a specific network or the like (as illustrated inFIG. 1, the plurality of robots 20 communicate with each other over anetwork 30). The predetermined range further includes the plurality ofrobots 20 may communicate with each other by near-field communication,for example, an electronic tag or the like, within a specific distance(for example, within a house). The user 10 may set the plurality ofrobots 20, issue a command, or make a conversation with the robots 20.The user 10 may be an owner or user of the robot 20.

Each robot has a corresponding wake-up word for waking up the robot froma sleep state or responding to a call of the user (generally one wake-upword is defined, and nevertheless, a plurality of wake-up words may alsobe defined). The wake-up word may be a name of the robot, anidentification code or any other random word, and the wake-up word maybe set by the user or may be provided before delivery from factory.

The embodiments of the present application are particularly applicableto a scenario where the same user owns a plurality of robots having thesame appearance. Since each robot has its own role and is generallyresponsible for a designated task, to prevent the robot whose work loadis great from failure within a short time period, role exchange may beperformed between two robots having the same appearance. Todifferentiate the robots having the same appearance, differentcharacters may also be set for the robots, and the user 10 maydifferentiate the robots according to the characters of the robots.

It should be noted that although FIG. 1 only illustrates one user 10,and three robots 20, a person skilled in the art may understand that inpractice, the applicant scenario may include more users 10 and morerobots 20.

An embodiment of the present application provides a robot role switchingmethod. The method may be performed by any robot 20 as illustrated inFIG. 1. As illustrated in FIG. 2, the method includes the followingsteps:

Step 101: Other robots having the same appearance as the robot itselfwithin the predetermined range are identified.

Generally, the brand and model of the robots having the same appearanceare the same, and a robot may identify whether the other robots arerobots having the same appearance by identifying the brand and model. Ifthe robots are robots having the same brand and appearance but differentmodels, the robot companies may set a code or a style number torepresent the robots having the same appearance. In this case, the robotmay identify, according to the number or the style number, whether therobots have the same appearance as the robot itself. In practice, forexample, if a robot is newly added to a family, the new robot maybroadcast its brand, model, code, style number or the like informationto the other robots. If the other robots find that the brand of the newrobot is the same as theirs, and any one or more of the model, code andstyle number of the robot are the same as theirs, it may be identifiedthat the new robot has the same appearance.

Step 102: Role exchange is performed with the other robots having thesame appearance as the robot itself within the predetermined range.

The role exchange includes: exchange of wake-up words, exchange ofcharacters, and exchange of working tasks.

According to the embodiment of the present application, role exchangemay be implemented between the robot and the other robots having thesame appearance as the robot itself within the predetermined range, suchthat some application scenarios are accommodated, and user experience isbetter improved.

Optionally, for the convenience of differentiating the robots having thesame appearance by the user, in other embodiments of the method, asillustrated in FIG. 3, in addition to step 201 and step 202 (for thedetails of step 201 and step 202, reference may be made to step 101 andstep 102), the method further includes the following steps:

Step 203: A character of the robot itself is defined, such that thecharacter is different from those of the other robots having the sameappearance as the robot itself within the predetermined range.

After the robots having the same appearance as the robot itself areidentified, two (or more) robots having the same appearance may enable asynchronization mechanism to synchronize setting and configurationinformation, wherein the setting and configuration information includeswake-up words and characters. In this way, each of the robots having thesame appearance may know the setting and configuration information ofanother. The robots having the same appearance may be defined todifferent characters. For example, one robot may be set to be active,talkative and loud in voice, and another robot may be set to be mild,gentle, inactive or less talkative, and soft in voice. The charactersmay be chosen from a plurality of predetermined characters, and theplurality of characters may be predefined before delivery from factory,or may be loaded from a cloud end after delivery from factory.Nevertheless, the user may also define the character of the robotaccording to his or her actual needs. If the user does not like thecurrent character of the robot, the robot may switch between differentcharacters according to a command for the user.

According to the embodiment of the present application, differentcharacters are defined for the robots having the same appearance, suchthat the user differentiates the robots according to the characters ofthe robots. In this way, it is convenient for the user to differentiatethe robots, and thus user experience is bettered.

Specifically, to further enhance user experience, in some embodiments ofthe method, as illustrated in FIG. 4, performing role exchange with theother robots having the same appearance as the robot itself within thepredetermined range includes the following steps:

Step 1021: A voice command of a user is acquired.

The voice command of the user is generally in the form of a wake-up wordplus command content, for example, “Mike (wake-up word), what is theweather like today (command content)?”

Step 1022: Whether the user mistakes the robot for someone else, and arobot which the user desires to call are determined according to thevoice command.

After the robots having the same appearance within the predeterminedrange are identified, two (or more) robots having the same appearancemay synchronize with each other real-time position information thereof,and add the wake-up words of the other robots having the same appearanceas the robot itself within the predetermined range to a predeterminedwake-up word library. The wake-up word library may be configured beforedelivery from factor or may be configured by the user.

First, a wake-up word in the voice command is parsed out according tothe voice command of the user. If the wake-up word in the wake-up wordis different from the wake-up word of the robot itself but is the sameas a wake-up word in the wake-up word library, it indicates that theuser desires to call another robot having the same appearance instead ofthe robot itself. In this case, the real-time position information ofthe robot (that is, the robot which the user desires to call)corresponding to the wake-up word in the voice command is acquired, andwhether the real-time position information is within a predeterminedposition range is identified. The predetermined position range may be aspecific range in the vicinity of the robot. If the predeterminedposition information is not within the predetermined position range, itindicates that the robot which the user desires to call is not presentin the vicinity, and it may thus be determined that the user mistakesthe robot for someone else itself. The robot which the user desires tocall may be determined according to the wake-up word in the voicecommand.

Step 1023: if the user mistakes the robot for someone else, roleexchange is performed with the robot which the user desires to call, orthe user is interrogated to determine whether to perform role exchangewith the robot which the user desires to call.

If it is identified that the user mistakes the robot for someone elseitself, the robot may communicate with the other robot to perform roleexchange therebetween. Alternatively, if the user mistakes the robot forsomeone else itself, the robot may interrogate the user whether roleexchange needs to be performed between the robot and the someone else,and perform role exchange with the someone else upon receipt of anacknowledgement from the user. If the user does not need role exchange,role exchange does not need to be performed. Further, before roleexchange, whether role exchange affects the current tasks of the tworobots may be judged. If the tasks may not be affected, role exchangemay be performed between the two robots. If the tasks may be affected,role exchange may not be performed between the two robots. In this case,the position of the robot which the user desires to call may be notifiedto the user according to the real-time position information. Forexample, in the case of twin robots Tony and William, the user mistakesTony for William. In this case, when Tony hears that the user calls himWilliam, Tony may automatically perform role exchange with William, andthus the current task of the new William is to respond to the call ofthe user, and the current task of the new Tony becomes switching to thetask of the former William.

The embodiment of the present application is applicable to a scenariowhere the user makes confusion between the robots. Although differentcharacters are defined for the robots having the same appearance,sometimes it is still inevitable to make a mistake in differentiatingthese robots. In the scenario of mistaking one robot for another, therobot which is called by mistake exchanges the role with the robot whichthe user desires to call, or the user is interrogated to determinewhether role exchange is needed. In this way, a solution is provided forthe scenario where the user mistaking one robot for another, and thususer experience is further enhanced.

Due to different character configurations or task attributes, forexample, one robot is active and lively, and another robot is quiet andless active, or one robot is responsible for doing housework, andanother robot is responsible for receiving and welcoming visitors orguests, it is inevitable that the robot doing more actions ismechanically worn more quickly. For a balance of joint wear of two ormore robots having the same appearance, optionally, as illustrated inFIG. 5, in some embodiments of the method, performing role exchange withthe other robots having the same appearance as the robot itself withinthe predetermined range includes the following steps:

Step 1024: Remaining usage days of the robot are acquired.

Specifically, acquiring the remaining usage days of the robot includes:

acquiring mechanical wear of each joint;

The mechanical wear of the joint may be estimated according to thenumber of bending times of the joint or the total number of turns of theservo, or the usage time of the joint or the like.

estimating a remaining usage degree of the joint according to themechanical wear;

estimating a daily wear amount of the joint according to a working taskaverage value;

estimating the remaining usage days of the joint according to theremaining usage degree and the daily wear amount of the joint;

wherein the remaining usage days is acquired by dividing the remainingusage degree of the joint by the daily wear amount; and

taking minimum remaining usage days in the remaining usage days of allthe joints as the remaining usage days of the robot.

Step 1025: Remaining usage days of the other robots having the sameappearance as the robot itself within the predetermined range isacquired.

Step 1026: Minimum remaining usage days in the remaining usage days ofall the robots prior to role exchange is identified.

Upon acquiring the remaining usage days, each robot may broadcast theremaining usage days to the other robots having the same appearance, andreceive the remaining usage days of the other robots sent by the otherrobots having the same appearance. One robot may find the minimumremaining usage days in all the remaining usage days.

Step 1027: Minimum remaining usage days in the remaining usage days ofall the robots is estimated upon role exchange between the robot and therobots having the same appearance within the predetermined range.

Step 1028: If the minimum remaining usage days upon role exchangeexceeds the minimum remaining usage days prior to role exchange by apredetermined threshold, role exchange is performed with the otherrobots having the same appearance as the robot itself within thepredetermined range.

If there are two robots having: the same appearance, then one robot mayidentify whether the minimum remaining usage days upon role exchangeexceeds a predetermined threshold (the predetermined threshold may be,for example, two weeks, one month or the like) relative to the minimumdays prior to role exchange. If the minimum remaining usage days uponrole exchange exceeds the predetermined threshold, that is, if usageterms of the two robots prior to role exchange is superior over usageterms thereof prior to role exchange, role exchange is performed. Ifthere are more than two robots having the same appearance, then onerobot may list a plurality of solutions of role exchange between aplurality of robots, then choose solutions where the minimum remainingusage day's upon role exchange exceeds a predetermined thresholdrelative to the minimum remaining usage day's prior to role exchange,choose a solution where the minimum remaining usage days is the maximumin these solutions, and finally perform role exchange according to thesolution where the minimum remaining usage days is the maximum. If inall the role exchange solutions upon role exchange, the minimumremaining usage days does not exceed the minimum remaining usage daysprior to role exchange by the predetermined threshold, role exchange isnot performed.

According to the embodiment of the present application, role exchange isperformed according to the remaining usage days of each robot, such thatthe usage term of each robot upon role exchange is superior over theusage term thereof prior to role exchange, to prevent the scenario wherethe robot which is more active is more apt to fail over the less-activerobot. In this way, the joint wear of two or more robots is morebalanced.

It should be noted that steps 1024, 1025, 1026, 1027 and 1028 are notnecessarily performed by each robot. However, steps 1025, 1026 and 1027may be only performed by one robot or a plurality of robots. Forexample, each robot may broadcast its own operating state to the otherrobots, and an idlest robot performs the steps 1025, 1026 and 1027 andthen shares a result to the other robots over the network.

Optionally, as illustrated in FIG. 6, in other embodiments of themethod, role exchange may be performed only according to a timeinterval. That is, performing role exchange with the other robots havingthe same appearance as the robot itself within the predetermined rangeincludes the following step:

Step 1029: Role exchange is performed with the other robots having thesame appearance as the robot itself within the predetermined range at aninterval of a predetermined time period according to working task typesor characters of the other robots.

The predetermined time period may be three months, six months or thelike. For example, at an interval of six months, role exchange isperformed between a lively and active robot and a quiet and less-activerobot and role exchange is performed between a robot responsible fortasks causing more joint wear and a robot responsible for tasks causingless joint wear.

Optionally, as illustrated in FIG. 7, in other embodiments of themethod, performing role exchange with the other robots having the sameappearance as the robot itself within the predetermined range includesthe following step:

Step 1030: Role exchange is performed with the other robots having thesame appearance as the robot itself within the predetermined range if itis identified that the robot is abnormal.

If the robot identifies that the robot is abnormal, for example, whenthe robot is about to crash down due to over-temperature or fail tocontinuously operate due to other causes, to continue the current task,the robot may perform role exchange with the other robots having thesame appearance as the robot itself within the predetermined range.Further, to ensure that a task having a higher priority is performedpreferentially, prior to role exchange with the other robots, the robotmay determine the priorities of the robots having the same appearance asthe robot itself. The robot may choose a robot having a priority lowerthan that of the robot itself and perform role exchange with the chosenrobot. In this way, continuity of the tasks having higher priorities maybe ensured. For example, the priorities of the tasks may be classifiedto 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, wherein 1 indicates the highest priority. Assumingthat a robot 1 which may immediately fail to operate is performing atask having the priority 2, and another robot 2 having the sameappearance is performing a task having the priority 2, then the robot 1communicates with the robot 2, and detects that the task prioritysatisfies the requirement of role exchange. In this case, role exchangemay be performed between the robot 1 and the robot 2. The robot 2 mayreach the position of the robot 1 according to the synchronizedreal-time position information.

Correspondingly, an embodiment of the present application furtherprovides a robot role switching apparatus 300. The apparatus is arrangedin any robot as illustrated in FIG. 1. As illustrated in FIG. 8, theapparatus 300 includes:

an identifying module 301, configured to identify other robots havingthe same appearance as the robot itself within the predetermined range;and

a role exchanging module 302, configured to perform role exchange withthe other robots having the same appearance as the robot itself withinthe predetermined range.

According to the embodiment of the present application, role exchangemay be implemented between the robot and the other robots having thesame appearance as the robot itself within the predetermined range, suchthat some application scenarios are accommodated, and user experience isbetter improved.

Optionally, as illustrated in FIG. 9, in other embodiments of theapparatus, in addition to the identifying module 401 and the roleexchanging module 402, the apparatus 400 further includes:

a character defining module 403, configured to define a character of therobot itself, such that the character is different from those of theother robots having the same appearance as the robot itself within thepredetermined range.

Optionally, as illustrated in FIG. 10, in some embodiments of theapparatus, the role exchanging module 302 includes a first roleexchanging sub-module 3021, configured to:

acquire a voice command of a user;

determine, according to the voice command, whether the user mistakes therobot for someone else, and a robot which the user desires to call;

if the user mistakes the robot for someone else, perform role exchangewith the robot which the user desires to call, or interrogate the userwhether to perform role exchange with the robot which the user desiresto call.

Optionally, in other embodiments of the apparatus, the apparatus furtherincludes:

a wake-up word adding module, configured to add wake-up words of theother robots having the same appearance as the robot itself within thepredetermined range into a predetermined wake-up word library; and

a sharing module, configured to share real-time position informationwith the other robots having the same appearance as the robot itselfwithin the predetermined range;

wherein the first role exchanging sub-module 3021 is further configuredto:

parse out a wake-up word in the voice command according to the voicecommand of the user;

if the wake-up word in the voice command is different from a wake-upword of the robot but is the same as a wake-up word in the wake-up wordlibrary, acquire real-time position information of a robot correspondingto the wake-up word in the voice command, identify whether the real-timeposition information is within a predetermined position range, anddetermine that the user mistakes the robot for someone else if thereal-time position information is not within the predetermined positionrange; and

determine, according to the wake-up word in the voice command, the robotwhich the user desires to call.

Optionally, as illustrated in FIG. 10, in some embodiments of theapparatus, the role exchanging module 302 includes a second roleexchanging sub-module 3022, configured to:

acquire remaining usage days of the robot;

acquire remaining usage days of the other robots having the sameappearance as the robot itself within the predetermined range;

identify minimum remaining usage days in the remaining usage days of allthe robots prior to role exchange;

estimate minimum remaining usage days in the remaining usage days of allthe robots upon role exchange between the robot and the robots havingthe same appearance within the predetermined range; and

if the minimum remaining usage days upon role exchange exceeds theminimum remaining usage days prior to role exchange by a predeterminedthreshold, perform role exchange with the other robots having the sameappearance as the robot itself within the predetermined range.

Optionally, in other embodiments of the apparatus, the second roleexchanging sub-module 3022 is further configured to:

acquire mechanical wear of each joint;

estimate a remaining usage degree of the joint according to themechanical wear;

estimate a daily wear amount of the joint according to a working task;

estimate the remaining usage days of the joint according to theremaining usage degree and the daily wear amount of the joint;

take minimum remaining usage days in the remaining usage days of all thejoints as the remaining usage days of the robot.

Optionally, as illustrated in FIG. 10, in some embodiments of theapparatus, the role exchanging module 302 includes a third roleexchanging sub-module 3023, configured to:

perform role exchange with the other robots having the same appearanceas the robot itself within the predetermined range at an interval of apredetermined time period according to working task types or charactersof the other robots.

Optionally, as illustrated in FIG. 10, in some embodiments of theapparatus, the role exchanging module 302 includes a fourth roleexchanging sub-module 3024, configured to:

perform role exchange with the other robots having the same appearanceas the robot itself within the predetermined range if it is identifiedthat the robot is abnormal.

Optionally, in other embodiments of the apparatus, the fourth roleexchanging sub-module is further configured to:

perform role exchange with a robot whose working priority is lower thatthe robot itself in the other robots having the same appearance as therobot itself within the predetermined range.

Optionally, in some embodiments of the apparatus, the role exchangeincludes: exchange of wake-up words, exchange of characters, andexchange of working tasks.

FIG. 11 is a schematic hardware structural diagram of a robot 20 in therobot role switching method according to an embodiment of the presentapplication.

As illustrated in FIG. 11, the robot 20 includes: at least one processor21 and a memory 22, and FIG. 11 uses one processor as an example.

The at least one processor 21 and the memory 22 may be connected via abus or in another manner, and FIG. 11 uses the bus as an example.

The memory 22, as a non-volatile computer readable storage medium, maybe configured to store non-volatile software programs, non-volatilecomputer executable programs and modules, for example, the programinstructions/modules corresponding to the role switching method in theembodiments of the present application (for example, the identifyingmodule 301 and the character defining module 302 as illustrated in FIG.8). The non-volatile software programs, instructions and modules storedin the memory 22, when being executed, cause the processor 21 to performvarious function applications and data processing of a server, that is,performing the role switching method according to the above methodembodiments.

The memory 22 may include a program memory area and data memory area,wherein the program memory area may store operating systems andapplication programs needed by at least one function; and the datamemory area may store data created according to the usage of the roleswitching apparatus. In addition, the memory 22 may include a high speedrandom access memory, or include a non-volatile memory, for example, atleast one disk storage device, a flash memory device, or anothernon-volatile solid storage device. In some embodiments, the memory 22optionally includes memories remotely configured relative to theprocessor 21. These memories may be connected to the role switchingapparatus over a network. Examples of the above network include, but notlimited to, the Internet, Intranet, local area network, mobilecommunication network and a combination thereof.

One or more modules are stored in the memory 22, and when being executedby the at least one processor 21, perform the role switching methodaccording to any of the above method embodiments, for example,performing steps 101 to 102 in the method as illustrated in FIG. 2,steps 201 to 203 in the method as illustrated in FIG. 3, steps 1021 to1203 in the method as illustrated in FIG. 4, steps 1024 to 1028 in themethod as illustrated in FIG. 5, step 1029 in the method as illustratedin FIG. 6, and step 1030 in the method as illustrated in FIG. 7; andimplementing the functions of the modules 301 to 302 as illustrated inFIG. 8, the modules 401 to 403 as illustrated in FIG. 9, the module 302and the sub-modules 3021 to 3024 as illustrated in FIG. 10.

The product may perform the method according to the embodiments of thepresent application, has corresponding function modules for performingthe method, and achieves the corresponding beneficial effects. Fortechnical details that are not illustrated in detail in this embodiment,reference may be made to the description of the methods according to theembodiments of the present application.

An embodiment of the present application provides a non-volatilecomputer-readable storage medium, wherein the computer readable storagemedium stores computer-executable instructions, which, when beingexecuted by at least one processor, for example, the processor 11 asillustrated in FIG. 11, cause the at least one processor to perform therole switching method according to any of the above method embodiments,for example, performing steps 101 to 102 in the method as illustrated inFIG. 2, steps 201 to 203 in the method as illustrated in FIG. 3, steps1021 to 1203 in the method as illustrated in FIG. 4, steps 1024 to 1028in the method as illustrated in FIG. 5, step 1029 in the method asillustrated in FIG. 6, and step 1030 in the method as illustrated inFIG. 7; and implementing the functions of the modules 301 to 302 asillustrated in FIG. 8, the modules 401 to 403 as illustrated in FIG. 9,the module 302 and the sub-modules 3021 to 3024 as illustrated in FIG.10.

The above described apparatus embodiments are merely for illustrationpurpose only. The units which are described as separate components maybe physically separated or may be not physically separated, and thecomponents which are illustrated as units may be or may not be physicalunits, that is, the components may be located in the same position ormay be distributed into a plurality of network units. A part or all ofthe modules may be selected according to the actual needs to achieve theobjectives of the technical solutions of the embodiments.

According to the above embodiments of the present application, a personskilled in the art may clearly understand that the embodiments of thepresent application may be implemented by means of hardware or by meansof software plus a necessary general hardware platform. Persons ofordinary skill in the art may understand that all or part of the stepsof the methods in the embodiments may be implemented by a programinstructing relevant hardware. The program may be stored in acomputer-readable storage medium and may be executed by at least oneprocessor. When the program runs, the steps of the methods in theembodiments are performed. The storage medium may be any medium capableof storing program codes, such as read-only memory (ROM), a randomaccess memory (RAM), a magnetic disk, or a compact disc-read only memory(CD-ROM).

Finally, it should be noted that the above embodiments are merely usedto illustrate the technical solutions of the present application ratherthan limiting the technical solutions of the present application. Underthe concept of the present application, the technical features of theabove embodiments or other different embodiments may be combined, thesteps therein may be performed in any sequence, and various variationsmay be derived in different aspects of the present application, whichare not detailed herein for brevity of description. Although the presentapplication is described in detail with reference to the aboveembodiments, persons of ordinary skill in the art should understand thatthey may still make modifications to the technical solutions describedin the above embodiments, or make equivalent replacements to some of thetechnical features; however, such modifications or replacements do notcause the essence of the corresponding technical solutions to departfrom the spirit and scope of the technical solutions of the embodimentsof the present application.

What is claimed is:
 1. A robot role switching method, comprising: at arobot, the robot being capable of communicating with other robots withina predetermined range: identifying other robots having the sameappearance as the robot itself within the predetermined range; andperforming role exchange with the other robots having the sameappearance as the robot itself within the predetermined range.
 2. Themethod according to claim 1, wherein the performing role exchange withthe other robots having the same appearance as the robot itself withinthe predetermined range comprises: acquiring a voice command of a user;determining, according to the voice command, whether the user mistakesthe robot for someone else, and a robot which the user desires to call;and if the user mistakes the robot for someone else, performing roleexchange with the robot which the user desires to call, or interrogatingthe user whether to perform role exchange with the robot which the userdesires to call.
 3. The method according to claim 2, further comprising:adding wake-up words of the other robots having the same appearance asthe robot itself within the predetermined range into a predeterminedwake-up word library; and sharing real-time position information withthe other robots having the same appearance as the robot itself withinthe predetermined range; and the determining, according to the voicecommand, whether the user mistakes the robot for someone else, and therobot which the user desires to call comprises: parsing out a wake-upword in the voice command according to the voice command of the user; ifthe wake-up word in the voice command is different from a wake-up wordof the robot but is the same as a wake-up word in the wake-up wordlibrary, acquiring real-time position information of a robotcorresponding to the wake-up word in the voice command, identifyingwhether the real-time position information is within a predeterminedposition range, and determining that the user mistakes the robot forsomeone else if the real-time position information is not within thepredetermined position range; and determining, according to the wake-upword in the voice command, the robot which the user desires to call. 4.The method according to claim 1, wherein the performing role exchangewith the other robots having the same appearance as the robot itselfwithin the predetermined range comprises: acquiring remaining usage daysof the robot; acquiring remaining usage days of the other robots havingthe same appearance as the robot itself within the predetermined range;identifying minimum remaining usage days in the remaining usage days ofall the robots prior to role exchange; estimating minimum remainingusage days in the remaining usage days of all the robots upon roleexchange between the robot and the robots having the same appearance asthe robot within the predetermined range; and if the minimum remainingusage days upon role exchange exceeds the minimum remaining usage daysprior to role exchange by a predetermined threshold, performing roleexchange with the other robots having the same appearance as the robotitself within the predetermined range.
 5. The method according to claim4, wherein the acquiring the remaining days of the robot comprises:acquiring mechanical wear of each joint; estimating a remaining usagedegree of the joint according to the mechanical wear; estimating a dailywear amount of the joint according to a working task; estimating theremaining usage days of the joint according to the remaining usagedegree and the daily wear amount of the joint; and taking minimumremaining usage days in the remaining usage days of all the joints asthe remaining usage days of the robot.
 6. The method according to claim1, wherein the performing role exchange with the other robots having thesame appearance as the robot itself within the predetermined rangecomprises: performing role exchange with the other robots having thesame appearance as the robot itself within the predetermined range at aninterval of a predetermined time period according to working task typesor characters of the other robots.
 7. The method according to claim 1,wherein the performing role exchange with the other robots having thesame appearance as the robot itself within the predetermined rangecomprises: performing role exchange with the other robots having thesame appearance as the robot itself within the predetermined range if itis identified that the robot is abnormal.
 8. The method according toclaim 7, wherein the performing role exchange with the other robotshaving the same appearance as the robot itself within the predeterminedrange if it is identified that the robot is abnormal comprises:performing role exchange with a robot whose working priority is lowerthat the robot itself in the other robots having the same appearance asthe robot itself within the predetermined range.
 9. The method accordingto claim 1, further comprising: defining a character of the robotitself, such that the character of the robot itself is different fromthose of the other robots having the same appearance as the robot itselfwithin the predetermined range.
 10. The method according to claim 1,wherein the role exchange comprises: exchange of wake-up words, exchangeof characters, and exchange of working tasks.
 11. A robot, comprising:at least one processor; and a memory communicably connected to the atleast one processor: wherein the memory stores instructions executableby the at least one processor, wherein, the instructions, when beingexecuted by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processorto perform the method as defined in claim
 1. 12. A non transitorycomputer-readable storage medium, wherein the computer-readable storagemedium stores computer-executable instructions, which, when beingexecuted by a robot, cause the robot to perform the method as defined inclaim 1.